One peculiar corner of the web

Tabletop

We had a gaming day at The Sentry Box and as part of that I managed to play the Imperial side in the first campaign scenario for imperial Assault game from FFG. In it the Rebel heroes have to work their way into a small Imperial station and destroy the data terminals by the end of six turns or before they are all wounded.

It seemed as if it would be a cake walk at first but in our game the Rebels were defeated at the last minute when an Imperial E-Webber team managed to wound the final hero and end the game just prior to the same hero blasting away the final terminal.

We didn’t use many of the standard accoutrements from the campaign game rules as this was just a one-off game but it was still a lot of fun. I’m going to be trying to arrange a group to run through the campaign properly and get the full experience.

Nathan and I met up at The Sentry Box today to give the Star Wars Armada game a try. This was the first game for either of us so it was certainly a learning experience and we did mess up a few rules but nothing that would have changed the game.

We only did a a 180pt game and I decided to take two Victory I class Star Destroyers with a small screen of TIEs consisting of two regular squadrons and Howlrunner. I wanted to see how the ships worked in a pair and I also thought that it might be advantageous to have the added firepower. Nathan used the default Rebel build from the Starter Set and I won initiative since I was two points under.

This Saturday The Sentry Box hosted a Heroes of Normandie game day. Over the course of the day we managed to get three full games in and chatted to a few people about the game.

Game 1 setup

Game 3 setup

German game 3 force

American game 3 army

Game 2 US position

Game 2 setup

SS Panzergrenadiers

Lets walk instead

The first game was played was with the Slaughterhouse (5) scenario from the box. In it, German and American forces are attempting to take control of a small house which is initially held by the Americans. Bryan and James played the scenario while I chatted with folks about the game system and checked out the rules when questions were raised. As much as I like the system, the rulebook is really poorly organized. Happily once you have the rules figured out you don’t need to refer to the rulebook any further since everything you need is on the unit tokens.

The first game quickly devolved into a mad clash for the house as James threw his Germans at the building as Bryan attempted to flank them and cut off the attacks. Grenades flew from both sides but some wildly poor rolls as well as quickly played random event cards meant that most of the grenade attacks were without effect. In the end the Americans wore the Germans down and the house remained in American hands to give them the win.

Last night was the monthly board game night that one of my friends hosts in the south-west. As I didn’t have any other events scheduled for the weekend so I was happily able to go. The event starts after dinner and goes into the early morning and while I wasn’t able to stay the entire evening I did stay long enough to get in a few games.

First off was a quick game of Heroes of Normandie. I was introducing the game to a new player so we tried one of the provided scenarios called Saving Private Rex. I played the Americans and my opponent picked the Germans. The goal of the scenario is for the Americans to find and rescue their General’s pet dog. The game was fun and it was easy to explain the rules but I was struck, yet again, that the true appeal of the game is in larger custom scenarios where you pick your own forces and have a larger number of available orders. The scenario we played was a quick win for the Americans as Private Rex randomly appeared in a space that was easy for me surround and keep away from the Germans.

My lethargic painting progress continues as I have now managed to finish the figures in the starter set for my Shattered Sword figures. Aside from the usual issues that limit my painting time, I also spent a fair bit of hobby time assembling the rest of my Relic Knights figs. Now that they are all primed and ready to paint I should be able to get a few more figures done.

All of these minis were primed white and painting them just reminded me of how much I loathe painting over white primer. Every tiny spot you miss pops out from the figure and it really highlights that rather cavalier way in which I paint. I also painted these troops up as traditional knights mostly to speed the process up but also because I really like how metallic armour looks.

Francis Malory is actually a very nicely sculpted figure and unlike a lot of the smaller Relic Knights figures he has some good definition in his face. The Paragons in the background are a bit of a mishmash of a paint scheme. I started them first and really couldn’t decide what colours to use or what to use as the primary colour and so they got painted over with the metallic base after an unsuccessful initial attempt. There is some precise details on the front of their shields that I really couldn’t pick out well enough so it was left without any paint on it.

These are a bit of a rush job (for me that is) and I will be taking my time with the rest of the Shattered Sword figures I have.

I have been playing Sentinels of the Multiverse on my iPad for some time and been having a heck of a time with it so I was happy to be able to try the game out in person. The Sentry Box ran events on Saturday and Sunday and while I wasn’t able to play on Saturday (I was running a Dicemasters event) I did get a chance to play today and it was a blast.

The physical game has a vast number of additional heroes, villains and environments and so the card game provides a lot of additional options to modify and change the game. As much as I like the digital version, it pales in comparison to just how entertaining the card game is. And the game also has a lot more co-operative play than a lot of co-op games I have played. Everyone involved is working to create situations that best use each hero’s powers and also allow you to create beneficial situations to mitigate damage from the villains, minions and environments.

In the second game I played I was using a team of lesser heroes called The Sentinels fighting with Legacy and Bunker to take down Voss in the Temple of Anubis. The team played unlike any of the other heroes I had encountered before and the Temple of Anubis environment provided an additional unique twist to the game meaning that even though two of the heroes and the villain were from the base set of the game, that it was utterly unlike any game of SoTM I had previously.

We also used the Sentinels Sidekick app app in the second game which let us track damage and other effects in the game on the iPad. An awesome addition to the game.

If you like super-hero games or co-op games I really can’t recommend this highly enough.

I was out at a monthly boardgame event and managed to get my first game of Ars Victor with Charles. As neither of us had played before we used one of the scenarios, number 3, from the back of the book which had two armies to use and a predefined board layout.

Ars Victor is a sci-fi(ish) themed board game that takes some of the unit themes of 40K Space Marines, Eldar and Imperial Guard and then combines it with a command and control system that is somewhat reminiscent of the Command and Colors system. Players have a deck of 24 cards that have two colours (gold and silver), four suits and values from 2 to 7. These cards are used each turn to determine the type (colour and suit) of units that can activate as well as how many. A more detailed description of the game can be found in the rules which are available as a PDF download from their website.

I did a trade on Bartertown recently for some miniatures and my part of the deal was a set of Noh miniatures for Relic Knights. When I picked up my initial figures from Dallas I really wanted the Noh set he had but he also had an eye on them so I went wanting. Happily I found what appears to be a Kickstarter set on Bartertown and the mailman dropped it yesterday.

The package consists of

Noh Faction Starter Set

Beastmaster

Hounds of Nozuki

Serpent Priestess

Kasaro To

Marikan To

Darkspace Rin Farrah

Render

Hyojin Berzerkers

And I also now finally have a boost pack. No Mamaro To oddly enough but I have more than enough to assemble and paint so I doubt I’ll miss him.

I have an interesting relationship with RPGs. I used to play them a lot when I was in university but once I left I really got out of the habit. Despite an interest in them, especially the idea of world-building, the rules really leave me cold and the general amount of energy and time that you need to put in to them seems, to me, to be disproportionate to the amount of fun you get back.

That said, I also spend insane amounts of time building and painting miniatures and terrain for my games so…

Anyhoo…

I also am interested in RPGs because I know that Michelle likes them and I am always on the lookout for a game that both of us can play. Those are few and far between though so I was quite happy that I was able to finally pick up a copy of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.(more…)

Today was a Marvel Dicemasters event at the store and even though I wasn’t playing I was helping run it for Sentry Box. While I was there I asked Bill to come down and introduce me to the Warhammer Diskwars game from Fantasy Flight.

Diskwars is a product that I was intrigued by when it was first announced but I passed it by during its initial releases. The reason was that the promotional material that FFG released made it look very character focused and less about troops and war machines. It wasn’t until the release of the second expansion, adding the Vampire Counts and a smattering of Skaven and Dark Elves, that I was able to see that it was more troop oriented and had a very good range of units and factions.(more…)